Today’s Post is from PPC Hero Ally Alexander Dao. Alexander is a Senior Manager at DataPop.com.  You can follow him @the_dao_jones

Google just announced that PLAs will begin showing on mobile devices globally.   If you upgrade to enhanced campaigns, your products will automatically be eligible to display for Smartphones.

Keep in mind that since smartphones by nature have less ad space than desktop, your product ad text will likely be truncated.  It will be increasingly important to prioritize the attributes in your feed title.   Most feeds have very merchandise heavy language.  i.e. Canon – EOS 60D 18.0-Megapixel DSLR Camera with 18-135m.

We recommend changing the merchandise heavy language to more consumer centric language.  See below for example of what consumers would see and what we would recommend:

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Below is a screenshot of how the experience will look on mobile devices:

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The expected impact of Enhanced Campaigns on PLAs are listed below:

  • All campaigns will be opted into all devices by default by June 2013, as part of a broader Enhanced Campaigns Auto-Upgrade.
  • Mobile upgrades will apply to Max CPC campaigns (max CPA% will not be affected)
  • API will be updated with new enhanced campaign settings and fields for mobile bid adjustments
  • Not all enhanced campaigns features for text ads will be enabled for Product Listing Ads

 

There will be certain Enhanced Campaigns features that are available to both Text Ads and Product Listing Ads:

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A few of the features on text ads will not be available for product ads as well:

  • No mobile specific creative
  • No click-to-call
  • No proximity bidding

To take advantage of some of the bidding capabilities you will have, make sure to set appropriate bid adjustments for device type, geo-location, and time of day.  This will increase the probability of your ads showing for your highest performing target markets.

For example:

  • Geo-Bids – If you sell surfboards, you may want to bid higher for users in California and Hawaii than users in Nebraska and Alabama.
  • Device Bids – If mobile converts lower than desktop, set a % bid decrease for all smartphone users.
  • Time of Day Bids – If users on mobile devices convert at a higher rate after work, set an increased bid % during these hours.

 

Google recommends merging your desktop and mobile PLA campaigns into one campaign to create simplicity in management when upgrading to enhanced campaigns.

There will be a lot more impact on PLAs from the Enhanced Campaigns upgrade so we’ll be sure to keep you posted on how you can best take advantage of these features.